Our Authors

Todd Brock

Todd lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat and opine about cheeseburgers and pizzas, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for The Gaslight Anthem. Or maybe both.

Location: Atlanta, GA

Favorite foods: Burgers; pizza; steak; salmon; fish tacos; anything blanketed in cheese, dipped in ranch dressing, or drowning in BBQ sauce; almost any variety of pie. I'm also a sucker for an extensive breakfast menu.

Last bite on earth: Last meal: Ghetto Burger from Ann's Snack Bar, Aussie Cheese Fries from Outback Steakhouse, a frosty root beer, pecan pie, and deep-fried ribs from The Little Dooey in Starkville, Mississippi. Last bite: one of my mom's chocolate chip cookies.

With holiday travel season fast approaching, there's a good statistical probability that you'll find yourself in Atlanta...no matter where you're really going. That's because Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest in the world, whether you're counting the number of passengers or the number of flights. And even if you're just passing through on a layover, you'll want somewhere to eat. More

Damn if Atlanta didn't go and turn itself into a bona fide pizza town when no one was looking. Pie fanatics could do a lot worse than booking a flight to Hartsfield-Jackson International and immersing themselves in our city's pizzascape for a few days. More

Some of my top burgers in Atlanta are traditional in style; some stray toward my personal penchant for crazy. You don't have to agree with all my choices, but trust my palate enough to know that every burger on this list is worth seeking out, whether you're a lifelong ATLien or just passing through on a long layover. More

Which fast food outlets have vanilla milkshakes that actually go beyond "boring, plain, and unexciting?" We picked nine nationwide chains, put our waistlines on the line, and braved the worst case of brain freeze in recorded history to find out. Here are our favorites. More

The Hank is one of those burgers you can't put down, for two reasons. One, you know you'll never get a decent handle on it again if you try to reposition it. Two, it's that outrageously spectacular. More

Two chalky-brown industrial patties wedged between a flattened bun that hadn't even been fully split, with cheese that's not really melting so much as drooping with sadness at being exiled to this travesty of burgerdom. How is this "influential"? More

Ink & Elm is pretty up front about wanting to be both "casual" and "comfort-driven," yet "refined" and a "destination." That can be a tough twofer to pull off under one roof. So it's not surprising that Ink & Elm's signature burger has a little Jekyll-and-Hyde thing going on, too. More

"Pizza is a social food. In this country, you call a friend and say, 'Let's go get a drink.' In Italy, we say, 'Let's get a pizza.'" Every single thing I ate at Don Antonio by Starita was well worth sharing with someone you care about. MY favorite pizza in Atlanta? I think I just found it. More

While they're fancying up the bookends by going all ciabatta on you, Wendy's has also quietly upped their game with a few new toppings. It all makes for a tasty-as-hell-sounding burger, but the reality is far less impressive. More

There's a time and a place for the pizza-as-artform-with-a-capital-A gourmet pizza shrines out there... but sometimes you just want to chill on your couch with a sloppy, gooey, greasy, holy-crap-this-is-why-I-fell-in-love-with-pizza-when-I-was-7 kind of pie. And LaBella's does that better than most. More

Thinly-sliced steak? Check. White cheese? Check. Onions and green peppers? Check—with even a slight bit of blackened blistering if you look closely. But I'm convinced that a huge part of my positive Philly experience came from the new bun. More

I enjoyed the food at Stax Burger Bar very much, but there's a residual odor that permeates this restaurant to the point that I can't just ignore it. My next visit will be in warmer weather so my nose can seek refuge on the sizable outdoor patio.
More

Don't get me wrong; I like a little kick, but this was a steel-toed boot being jammed straight up my taste buds. When I can still residually taste a pizza six hours and three tooth-brushings later, it's "too much."Suffice it to say, Slice & Pint is still—almost four months in—definitely a work in progress. More

Some people don't like butterscotch. Those people are flawed to their core and should not be trusted. And they certainly have no business coming anywhere near this ice cream. It is butterscotch overload, and I mean that in the very best way possible. More

While a quick glance may have you thinking that Stillhouse is a flash-in-the-pan gimmick destined to shut down once the next big thing comes along, there's actually quite a lot to like, for burger lovers and hooch heads alike. More

Unless you're a diehard Big Mac fanatic, Zesto's Big Mac-like Chubby Decker would probably win a blind taste-test because it was cooked for you instead of just assembled. Otherwise, the food doesn't always live up to the legend; most who've grown up with Zesto give it something of a pass based on sheer nostalgia. More

There's a cheese pizza that's delicious in its simplicity, but others showcase some spectacular and cheffy toppings. Ron Eyester may be "The Angry Chef," but what he's doing at Timone's should make pizza fanatics quite happy. More

Dave & Buster's feels like Chuck E. Cheese's for adults: it's a sports bar on steroids with an arcade on steroids. Yes, they serve food, but if you're looking for high-scoring burger goodness, your enjoyment here may be more virtual than reality. More

@cateater: I actually have all kinds of love for Moxie Burger, and they're just barely outside my Top 10 (but not by much). As for Ssam Burger, that's on the still-lengthy list of burgers I hadn't been able to try as of press time. I've heard great things, and look forward to sampling soon. (Maybe I'll have to do a Top 20 list next time...)

@Krysti: IknowIknowIknow. So many exceptional burgers in this city. If the list could have been a few spots longer, Red Eyed Mule would definitely be there. (Along with Grindhouse Killer Burgers, Yeah!Burger, even The Rusty Nail. Search the SE archive for any of those places to get my thoughts... and some extra burger porn.)

@ATL_Jen: Keep in mind that you can order the Hank as a single. Don't let my double-patty gluttony be the thing that scares you away from Illegal Food. Go, go, go! And yes, Farm Burger is excellent, too. Honorable mention.

@Xeraux: Thanks for the intel. Another burger added to the to-eat list...

To all the In-N-Out fanatics: I desperately wanted to include them in this review- as well as Jack in the Box and Culver's- but sadly, none of those chains exist in Georgia (where I'm based). And while Serious Eats was gracious enough to pay for these 9 milkshakes, I couldn't quite convince them to pony up for plane tickets to round out my "dairy dozen."

@Lorenzo: The rim may seem puffier than some iterations of Neapolitan, but I personally loved it. Sorry you didn't, @jedd63. The photos are not my best (dim lighting in there at night), admittedly. But I would put Don Antonio's pies right next to Antico or Varasano's; they're unquestionably that good.

@ATL_Jen: I didn't want to come right out and endorse a place by name in a review for another restaurant. But if you were to scroll through my reviews in the archive... and think "northwest suburbs"... and focus your search on, say, June of 2012...

Lee: I appreciate the kind words and I'm glad you liked the wings as much as I did. Interestingly, I went back and got another order shortly after they went national this summer... kind of half-expecting them to not be as good, maybe because of my expectations, maybe because they'd jiggered with the formula, maybe because it's just fast-food luck of the draw, maybe because, well, it's McDonald's. But they rocked and I felt vindicated. Now I do once more. Thanks for the shout-out.

@illone & @Sam Levison: I worded that paragraph VERY specifically. I'll pick *ALMOST* any other fast-food outlet over Wendy's for a road trip burger. And I called out by name: Burger King, Hardee's, Jack in the Box, and Culver's. I deliberately did not mention McDonald's... because I don't eat the clown's burgers (unless asked to review one by the SE mothership); I'm strictly a Filet-O-Fish guy at The Golden Arches. In fact, I originally did put Mickey D's in that roll call list... and then backspaced it out. I couldn't be dishonest just to try to make a point. I don't care for Wendy's hamburgers in general... but I would take it over one from McDonald's.

@Marie Let's Eat!: Thanks! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, too. Go when you can kick back and hang out on the patio for a while with a bottle of vino. I'll go ahead and also recommend the arancini as an app; the s'mores for dessert. Ask to sit in Kathryn's section; she's exceptional.

@BaristaBoysGirl: Chicken wings, anatomically speaking, are made up of 3 parts, which are usually cut away from each other for serving. The first section between the "shoulder" and the "elbow" is the drummette, which looks like a tiny drumstick or chicken leg. Attached to that is a flat center section with two bones that make up the middle of the wing joint. Respectively, these sections are nicknamed "drums" and "flats" by wing-eaters to differentiate them from one another. (The third section, the wing tip, is rarely served due to the lack of meat on it.)

@sdfishtaco: On the contrary, the rings were outstanding. And again, I'm admittedly not a rings guy...

@Shaby, @nowsonexitmusic, @suddenlyissoon: Tremont Tavern has long been on my list of places to hit at some point in my travels. But when I found that U.S. was literally 2 blocks away from my room at the Choo Choo, I couldn't pass it up. And I'm so glad I didn't...

@andymac73: I've not been through the truck stop yet, but love what Brett does in the mobile unit. You did see that review from this past summer, right?

@hungrychristel: Big A.1. fan myself. I can say this is thinner, with more emphasis on Worcestershire and soy... but those are the only two ingredients I could get confirmed. *Fruity* and *smoky* aren't words I would use to describe this...

@rlp122: Just north/east of Windward Parkway on Hwy 9. Be sure to tell 'em I sent you...

@sourdough & @bobcatsteph3: Interesting. Taco Bell is calling this a "nationwide" rollout on all three items; maybe the empanada has been a past test item in your necks of the woods.

@calicook: Point well taken. But at least they made an attempt by calling it an empanada instead of a pie. I might have cut the cookie a little slack if they'd taken more than half a second to name it.

@TheKaz: No, that's what I had thought, too. It's not sweet sprinkles. I'm not sure what it is, as I don't do a lot of baking or cake decorating, but it seems to be a product that's strictly for looks, because tasted straight, it was literally flavorless.

@wunami & @Scott569: Yeah, the artwork at The Cowfish is pretty boss. I'm not terribly well-versed in art, so some of the inside jokes and smarty-pants references were inevitably lost on me, but I saw a funky take on "American Gothic" that featured a pitchfork-impaled burger, a Warhol-inspired piece of repeating Technicolor burgers and sushi rolls, and a version of "Dogs Playing Poker" that looked like Picasso had done it. All wickedly cool, like everything else at The Cowfish (even the signs leading to the restrooms... trust me). The Lichtensteinesque work I show in this review was my favorite, and the one I thought AHTers might most appreciate/lust after.

Wow, 1-2 meals and so many recommendations. Some fine choices already here. Your FLIP and Woodfire mentions would suggest you're leaning toward "nicer" restaurants. Actually, if you're into Richard Blais, I'd go to his new place downtown, The Spence, instead. A much broader menu, much better food IMO, and there's a chance you'd actually see him there. STG Trattoria is a nice suggestion, too, for that part of town. The Westside has tons of spectacular options (that's where the excellent JCT Kitchen is) like Bocado and Miller Union, which I can't recommend highly enough. Also in that area, The Optimist, a brand-new high-end seafood place that is currently all the buzz. Watershed on Peachtree is also top-notch. And you really should hit both The Varsity and The Vortex for quintessential Atlanta experiences and solid grub at the other end of the spectrum. And then there's-- oh, wait. You said one to two meals. Hmm. choose wisely... and come on back soon!